Toto Wolff said races like Brazil justified Mercedes’ decision to make major changes to its 2024 F1 car.
Mercedes performed well in the races in Austin and Mexico, but faltered badly in Brazil, with Lewis Hamilton eighth and George Russell crashing. This happened a year after his great success at Interlagos.
Mercedes had time to think, analyze and figure out why things went wrong in Brazil. But the central element remains the 2024 season, which will see major changes to F1 teams, and the Brazilian adventure reaffirms the need for that.
“We see a lot of changes, but this is the path we are on and next year it will be a fundamentally different car. Brazil is proving that this is the right thing to do,” Wolff told the media. Told. “It confirms that the path to radical change is the right one. Last year you spent a weekend at Interlagos and were absolutely on top. On Saturday and Sunday you were destroying your competitors. It The question was: “Are we doing the right thing by continuing to use our current chassis?” And now that’s the question. It’s pretty clear.
“It’s a terrible feeling for the whole team. I wish we could start the new season by focusing on the new car.” They say that they put an extra band-aid on the development of this car, but that’s not true. It’s a situation where things are so unpredictable that it can swing either way, and you just flip off the edge and nothing goes wrong, making the difference six, seven, or even seven-eighths. It shows that it is possible. “It’s a bad surprise for all of us sometimes, and we probably ended up as bad as any other team,” Wolff summed up.
Even with the idea of changes, it is a big decision for Mercedes and when asked how confident they are in introducing these changes and whether they will help, Wolff said: He added: optimistic or confident. ”Maybe it’s just me and my brain. The glass is always half empty.
“But we are changing the car completely and compared to the last eight years when we were at the top and we were strong and we had the structure and people to perform there. I know I’m an outlier.” Winning a championship is another story. But I think, as I said earlier, this confirms that the steps we have taken are necessary. ”
Here Mercedes explains Brazil’s deficit
Here the Mercedes trio looks back on a bad GP in Brazil
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